I've read this, Not sure though what this tells me, this just confuses me with so much information.
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http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6015Determind
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Public Enemy
- Posts: 13
- Joined: 18 Jul 2007, 03:26
Determind
I'm quite determined to make a mod. I'm running a 2 man team one that is going to do the bulk of the coding, and one doing most modeling. But How do I start making one, and can I just base myin off an already made one and edit models, textures and values of each unit?
I've read this, Not sure though what this tells me, this just confuses me with so much information.
I've read this, Not sure though what this tells me, this just confuses me with so much information.
The spring community is usually pretty cool about you stealing their work, as most of it is based on TA or open source. There are a few mods though that are the property of their creators (EE, Gundam) so its best to ask first. Really though, the best way to learn how to mod for spring is to open up another mod and look in its guts.
AA BA and CA are all prettymuch free for anyone to come along and change/chop what they want to release a new mod. In fact, Pressurelines Under Pressure mod is based off of CA, despite having original models.
The problem with the AA based mods is they're not very well commented and rather dirty- there are all sorts of tags on many weapons and units that do nothing whatsoever, and a whole host of other very useful tags are nowhere to be found in the mod.
AA is probably the cleanest, as BA was run through modit and all the formatting on the FBI's was stripped out (CA is based on BA and thus also suffers from this).
BA is the standard mod that gets played the most so its worth looking at.
CA includes a lot of LUA, new weapon effects and other tricks that can really enhance your mod, and has a large team willing to answer any modding questions you might have, but its rather an untidy mess of code (as it has such a large team working on it and is based on BA which is based on AA which is based on TA).
XTA is probably the cleanest and easiest to poke about in, as the file names are the actual unit names, the fbi's are seperated into categories, etc. Im relatively sure you're free to rip XTA off but ill let someone else have the word on that one.
For a neat, small mod that wont overwhelm you when browsing through it, try Kernel Panic. Again i think they wont mind you nicking things, but im not totally sure. Eventually though you'll want to know how air, transports, hovercraft, ships etc work, and you'll have to look at one of the other mods.
As for the wiki, these are the pages you need to look at the most, as 90% of makin a game with good gameplay is tweaking these values:
http://spring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Units:FBI
http://spring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Weapon_Variables
AA BA and CA are all prettymuch free for anyone to come along and change/chop what they want to release a new mod. In fact, Pressurelines Under Pressure mod is based off of CA, despite having original models.
The problem with the AA based mods is they're not very well commented and rather dirty- there are all sorts of tags on many weapons and units that do nothing whatsoever, and a whole host of other very useful tags are nowhere to be found in the mod.
AA is probably the cleanest, as BA was run through modit and all the formatting on the FBI's was stripped out (CA is based on BA and thus also suffers from this).
BA is the standard mod that gets played the most so its worth looking at.
CA includes a lot of LUA, new weapon effects and other tricks that can really enhance your mod, and has a large team willing to answer any modding questions you might have, but its rather an untidy mess of code (as it has such a large team working on it and is based on BA which is based on AA which is based on TA).
XTA is probably the cleanest and easiest to poke about in, as the file names are the actual unit names, the fbi's are seperated into categories, etc. Im relatively sure you're free to rip XTA off but ill let someone else have the word on that one.
For a neat, small mod that wont overwhelm you when browsing through it, try Kernel Panic. Again i think they wont mind you nicking things, but im not totally sure. Eventually though you'll want to know how air, transports, hovercraft, ships etc work, and you'll have to look at one of the other mods.
As for the wiki, these are the pages you need to look at the most, as 90% of makin a game with good gameplay is tweaking these values:
http://spring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Units:FBI
http://spring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Weapon_Variables
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Public Enemy
- Posts: 13
- Joined: 18 Jul 2007, 03:26
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Pressure Line
- Posts: 2283
- Joined: 21 May 2007, 02:09
all my graphical work is original (models/textures) the bulk of the scripting is 'borrowed' off OTA or CA (CA's is a bit cleaner, but still suffers from Cavedog's voodoo magic scripting) and at the moment the weapons and fbi files are taken more or less straight out of CA.
feel free to look at the models, but i request at this point that they be left intact.
everything else is fair game, since i cannot lay claim to ownership of that stuff.
*edit* specifically look at the green commander and the green medoium tank turrets for how i got the ball base to rotate in 2 axes simultaneously ^_^
feel free to look at the models, but i request at this point that they be left intact.
everything else is fair game, since i cannot lay claim to ownership of that stuff.
*edit* specifically look at the green commander and the green medoium tank turrets for how i got the ball base to rotate in 2 axes simultaneously ^_^
Last edited by Pressure Line on 18 Jul 2007, 07:09, edited 1 time in total.
Same with .sdz. Just open it with 7zip.Peet wrote:It's just a .7z archive, renamed to .sd7Public Enemy wrote:The only trouble i'm having, is getting everything for that .sd7 file. how do i actulally get it? Is there a complier?
NanoBlobs is pretty well commented and should be useful to learn from as well.
Nanoblobs is under a GPL licence though, so be aware of what you need to do to comply with the licence before you use anything. It also uses rather weird units and economic structures that might be difficult to adapt to other mods.
For sd7, you need 7zip. Get it here.
http://www.7-zip.org/
For .sdz, its just a zip file. Open it using anything that opens zips (rename it to .zip if you have to).
It is my suggestion that you unpack it into a new folder in your mods directory, and name that folder into whatever.sdd. Putting .sdd on the end of the folder name will make spring recognise it as a mod, meaning you dont have to zip it up every time you want to test your changes.
Make sure to change the 'name' variable in the modinfo file so it shows up on the mod list.
Most of the files can be edited in Notepad, such as the TDF's and FBI's. They handle all the weapons and unit variables.
For the 3d side of things, you'll need upspring:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=4625
I think thats the latest version.
That can take any .obj or .3do or what have you, and turn it into something usable in spring. You'll need to make the actual 3d objects (And UV map them if using s3o) in another program though.
To make your units move, fire, etc they'll need a script, the .cob files. .cob files are compiled versions of .bos, which is what you'll be editing. A good program for compiling/decompiling .cob and writing bos is Scriptor:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=70
(Again, think this is the latest version)
If you dont want to mess with scripts for now, just find a unit that is like what you want to use and replace all its parts with your own pieces.
And that should be everything you need.
For sd7, you need 7zip. Get it here.
http://www.7-zip.org/
For .sdz, its just a zip file. Open it using anything that opens zips (rename it to .zip if you have to).
It is my suggestion that you unpack it into a new folder in your mods directory, and name that folder into whatever.sdd. Putting .sdd on the end of the folder name will make spring recognise it as a mod, meaning you dont have to zip it up every time you want to test your changes.
Make sure to change the 'name' variable in the modinfo file so it shows up on the mod list.
Most of the files can be edited in Notepad, such as the TDF's and FBI's. They handle all the weapons and unit variables.
For the 3d side of things, you'll need upspring:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=4625
I think thats the latest version.
That can take any .obj or .3do or what have you, and turn it into something usable in spring. You'll need to make the actual 3d objects (And UV map them if using s3o) in another program though.
To make your units move, fire, etc they'll need a script, the .cob files. .cob files are compiled versions of .bos, which is what you'll be editing. A good program for compiling/decompiling .cob and writing bos is Scriptor:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=70
(Again, think this is the latest version)
If you dont want to mess with scripts for now, just find a unit that is like what you want to use and replace all its parts with your own pieces.
And that should be everything you need.
TA benefited from a large, professional design staff, no matter how dated the material. Among other things, this allowed for such perks as professional sound effects, a professional soundtrack (which Spring, regrettably, does not support, but which's worth listening to: http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/802), a large bulk of units and weapon types, and a creative vision of what the game was going to be from someone who had time to think about these things instead of trying to execute his crazy visions.
Creating a TA based mod can be as easy as opening a .sdz with 7zip and modifying the unit and weapon .fbis in notepad. Before you get started with any of that, though, let alone modeling and scripting for yourself, I'd recommend getting a solid idea of what exactly it is that you want to create, how it will play, and keep in mind some of the reasons that TA was a game worth modding to begin with.
At the very least, you'll want to consider things like:
Unit roles (by default Raiders, Main Line, All Terrain, Artillery, Information, Transport, Precision Support [Snipers/Bombers], Long-Distance Ballistic and Explosive, etc.).
Game speed (determined by unit movement speeds, build times, and resource income relative to spending).
Value of information (decided by movement speeds, weapon ranges, weapon AoEs, unit sizes, map sizes, LoS distances and radar/whatever distances).
Scale (decided by movement speeds, weapon ranges, unit sizes, map sizes and number of units).
Victory paths (Ground/Sea Assault, Ground/Sea Bombardment, Air Assault, Air Bombardment, Long-Range Artillery/Explosives, Special Forces [Cloaking, Jamming, Information and Micro]/whatever else you can think of).
Themes (point of the faction(s) doing what they do [you can be original and introduce a storyline into the loading screens], general style(s) of the army(ies), etc.).
Alternatively, you could be like most other modders, briefly consider a theme, and then just start throwing in units haphazardly based upon a general knowledge of the bare minimum that's required to make a game coherent, but no particular consideration or planning. Give a million monkeys a million typewrites and over a million years maybe they'll end up with Shakespeare. Free love and all that hippy Arm crap.... 0o
Creating a TA based mod can be as easy as opening a .sdz with 7zip and modifying the unit and weapon .fbis in notepad. Before you get started with any of that, though, let alone modeling and scripting for yourself, I'd recommend getting a solid idea of what exactly it is that you want to create, how it will play, and keep in mind some of the reasons that TA was a game worth modding to begin with.
At the very least, you'll want to consider things like:
Unit roles (by default Raiders, Main Line, All Terrain, Artillery, Information, Transport, Precision Support [Snipers/Bombers], Long-Distance Ballistic and Explosive, etc.).
Game speed (determined by unit movement speeds, build times, and resource income relative to spending).
Value of information (decided by movement speeds, weapon ranges, weapon AoEs, unit sizes, map sizes, LoS distances and radar/whatever distances).
Scale (decided by movement speeds, weapon ranges, unit sizes, map sizes and number of units).
Victory paths (Ground/Sea Assault, Ground/Sea Bombardment, Air Assault, Air Bombardment, Long-Range Artillery/Explosives, Special Forces [Cloaking, Jamming, Information and Micro]/whatever else you can think of).
Themes (point of the faction(s) doing what they do [you can be original and introduce a storyline into the loading screens], general style(s) of the army(ies), etc.).
Alternatively, you could be like most other modders, briefly consider a theme, and then just start throwing in units haphazardly based upon a general knowledge of the bare minimum that's required to make a game coherent, but no particular consideration or planning. Give a million monkeys a million typewrites and over a million years maybe they'll end up with Shakespeare. Free love and all that hippy Arm crap.... 0o
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Public Enemy
- Posts: 13
- Joined: 18 Jul 2007, 03:26
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Pressure Line
- Posts: 2283
- Joined: 21 May 2007, 02:09
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SpikedHelmet
- MC: Legacy & Spring 1944 Developer
- Posts: 1948
- Joined: 21 Sep 2004, 08:25
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Warlord Zsinj
- Imperial Winter Developer
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- Joined: 24 Aug 2004, 08:59
Don't touch 3do. It's an outdated format, and a modding dead-end.
S3o is pretty close to most modern formats in terms of design; and the difference in quality, both in what can be output, and the amount of extra control you have is worth learning.
I do get saddened when I see 3do mods in Spring, because invariably they don't look as good, and tend to stick out like sore thumbs on some of the gorgeous terrain we have available. Which is no insult intended at makers of 3do mods; my first mod for Spring was entirely 3do; I think it's just important that newcomers learn how to operate with s3o.
S3o is pretty close to most modern formats in terms of design; and the difference in quality, both in what can be output, and the amount of extra control you have is worth learning.
I do get saddened when I see 3do mods in Spring, because invariably they don't look as good, and tend to stick out like sore thumbs on some of the gorgeous terrain we have available. Which is no insult intended at makers of 3do mods; my first mod for Spring was entirely 3do; I think it's just important that newcomers learn how to operate with s3o.
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Pressure Line
- Posts: 2283
- Joined: 21 May 2007, 02:09
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Guessmyname
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- Joined: 28 Apr 2005, 21:07
